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The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives fans were excited for notable cast member Taylor Frankie Paul to become the next lead of The Bachelorette. Unfortunately, the surfacing of a 2023 video showing incidents that led to her arrest and an aggravated assault charge resulted in the cancellation of her season. Now, Paul’s friend and fellow cast member, Jessi Draper, is speaking out. Here’s what she said about Paul’s past behavior and The Bachelorette.

Jessi Draper says Taylor Frankie Paul has ‘made a lot of changes’ since the 2023 video

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Jessi Draper spoke about Taylor Frankie Paul, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, and The Bachelorette cancellation while on the Call Her Daddy podcast in March 2026. According to Draper, she and the other cast members of SLOMW knew about the 2023 video showing Paul’s domestic violence incident. However, she noted that they never saw the footage at the time.

“I don’t like to judge someone in their darkest moment,” Jessi said. “I don’t want to judge the person; I’ll judge the mistake.”

Draper went on to explain how Paul has “made a lot of changes” since 2023. “This is my real friend,” she continued, “and she does have a really good heart. And I love her so much. Seeing that video is so hard because there’s so much pain underneath the surface for Taylor. … It’s not who Taylor is. She got caught in a really bad cycle.”

Draper went on to say that Paul is “such a good person” despite her mistakes. She’s also seen Paul in her “darkest moments,” adding that she “knows what goes on behind the scenes.”

“I want this to be maybe a wake-up call for them,” she continued. “Let’s get them healthy and happy and move forward. And I believe people can come back from this. And I just want the kids to be safe and happy and healthy. That’s all I really want for them right now.”

Later in the podcast, Draper noted that she wasn’t “super surprised” when Paul’s Bachelorette season was pulled. “But, I have to say, I saw Taylor during that journey, and she was a different person. I genuinely think that she needed to get away from Dakota. She stepped into a really confident, amazing era. … I’m so sad, because I wanted people to see that side of Taylor. Maybe one day, they will.”

‘The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’ cast decided to stop filming in light of recent events

Jessi Draper revealed on the Call Her Daddy podcast that she and the other SLOMW cast members decided to stop filming in light of the Taylor Frankie Paul video and controversy.

“We were starting to hear things, a little bit before it leaked, and we just didn’t want to be filming and say the wrong thing on camera, not knowing the full story yet,” Draper explained. “And we didn’t want to have to process all of this information for the first time, and then also be speaking about it.”

Draper also noted that before the cast decided to stop filming, production also paused before the Taylor Frankie Paul story broke. She said she felt very supported by the producers and the network.

“They handled it so well,” she said. “And because of that, I think we all felt comfortable being like, ‘You know what? This is our real lives. And if we want this show to continue to be successful, we have to handle this the right way.'”

Jessi Draper said she and the other ‘SLOMW’ cast members can now talk about the video

While speaking on the podcast, Jessi Draper noted that she and the other SLOMW cast members will likely continue filming the show and address the Taylor Frankie Paul video.

“I think now we’re at a point where we’re like, ‘OK, the world knows, and the info is out there,'” she said. “Now, we’re good, and we can speak on the things we know, and we can talk about it in a real way rather than before, we were like, ‘We don’t even know if this is going to get out.’ So, we didn’t know if we could even talk about it when we were filming. Now, we can.”

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